Soccer stereotypes:
America's distorted view of MuslimsBy Salam Al-Marayati, director of the Muslim Public
Affairs Council in Los Angeles
June 23, 1998

I watched the World Cup
soccer game between Iran and the United States, and could not believe what
I saw. The pregame show featured commentators spouting phrases like "holy
war" and interviews with former American hostages held in Iran. Post-game
analysis included a quip by Brent Musberger that Iranian newspapers could
headline their stories about the match "Great Satan Gets a Soccer Lesson."

Whatever happened to separating sports
from politics?

Watching the game underscored for
me how distorted a vision Americans have of the Iranian people -- as well
as others throughout the Muslim world. Take the Iranian athletes, representatives
of a country we have feared for the last 20 years. Iran. The global menace.
The pariah state. The exporter of terrorism.

No one on the Iranian team looked
even close in appearance to the stereotypical image of Muslims as violent
religious fanatics. Actually, some of them could have posed for GQ. Yet
every movie I see with an Iranian or Arab character depicts them in need
of a shower and a shave, ready to blow up the world. All that stops them
is being outwitted and outclassed by some American Rambo. The Iranians
carried no guns. In fact, they came onto the field carrying flowers.

The sad truth is that we Americans
have been held hostage by image-makers here (and in Iran) who continue
to bombard us with fears and prejudices. Image-makers, whether Hollywood
executives or news editors, influence public opinion as much, if not more,
than government officials. Among the important issues distorted by the
image-makers is international terrorism. The State Department's 1998 report
on global terrorism indicates once again that terrorist acts in Colombia
far outnumbered similar incidents in the Middle East. For example, since
1980, 85 U.S. citizens have been kidnapped by terrorist groups in Colombia,
a fact virtually unknown to Americans.

Yet terrorist in the minds of many
Americans has become a code word for Arab or Muslim.

The bias is evident in Europe as
well. Before the World Cup commenced, French authorities rounded up some
80 Muslims, fearing terrorist attacks during the games. Indeed, violence
has hit the streets of France, but it was British hooligans and German
skinheads who have been at fault. Should we call them "Christian terrorists?"
When public officials speak to Muslim groups they rarely conclude without
establishing that Muslims are good people, law-abiding citizens -- blah,
blah, blah. It is very odd to hear folks try to convince us that we are
normal. The media is the problem, they say. Then I talk to journalists,
and the government is to blame.

We are all to blame.

The public's inability to distinguish
personal behavior from religious values results in placing religion on
trial. Image-makers see Muslims as having captured the market on violence
and fanaticism. They overlook the religious backgrounds of the masterminds
of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, genocide in Rwanda, the killing fields in
Cambodia.

To add to the confusion, we encounter
real people who happen to be followers of Islam, such as those playing
on the Iranian soccer team, and we say, `Wait a minute. What I see now
and what I have seen on television or read in the newspaper are not the
same.' Anticipating the showers of gunfire etched in our minds from movies
and headlines, we are surprised to see these Iranian tough guys offering
ceremonial kisses and embraces to our athletes. In the end, we are all
slaves of our own misconceptions and of the past -- understandable for
the uneducated but inexcusable in the one remaining superpower, the world's
leading nation as we lurch toward the 21st century.

It is time to free ourselves of the
media distortions and see people for who they really are. Failure to do
so threatens us all -- Americans and Iranians alike.